unbound orbit results

gravity

How would the strength of the force between the Moon and Earth change if the mass of the Moon were somehow made two times greater than its actual mass? The strength would not change, it remains equal and opposite. 4.

the energy required to escape the Earth’s gravitational field is GMm / r, a function of the object’s mass (where r is the radius of the Earth, G is the gravitational constant, and M is the mass of the Earth, M = 5.9736 × 1024 kg).

The mass of the satellite definitely affects where it stays in the orbit (leo, meo or geo). Gravitational force between two objects is directly proportional to the product of their masses and indirectly proportional to the square of the distance between them.

1 Answer. Steve J. Assuming we are talking about the mass of the satellite (and not the mass of the body being orbited), mass does not affect the orbital speed.

2 Answers. No change will happen, as gravitational force will become half as well, so acceleration (=force/mass) will remain same. Note that the speed of a particle in a gravitational orbit does not depend on its mass. Therefore, the satellite will continue to travel in the same orbit.

v = √((6.67 × 10^(-11) × (5.97 × 10^(24)) /8500000) = 6844.5 m/s.

To stay in orbit, a satellite has to travel at a very high velocity, which depends on the height. So, typically, for a circular orbit at a height of 300 km above the Earth’s surface, a speed of 7.8 km/s (28,000 km/h) is needed. At this speed, the satellite will complete one orbit around the Earth in 90 minutes.

If the satellite slows down it would crash into the object it is orbiting. The satellite could be knocked or moved closer or farther from the object it is orbiting. If it moved closer, gravity would pull more strongly, if it moved farther, gravity would have less of a pull.

Angular momentum

Because the force of Newtonian gravity is a central force, there is no torque on a satellite orbiting a planet: the force is always parallel to the position vector. Therefore, angular momentum is conserved always in Newtonian gravitation, provided there are no externally acting forces.

The speed of satellite always remains constant in an orbit.

2 Answers. For simplicity, consider a perfectly circular orbit; the gravitational acceleration is always at a right angle to the velocity vector. This means that the speed cannot change despite the fact that there is constant acceleration.

That is, the velocity is not constant in an elliptical orbit. The velocity is greatest at perigee and it is slowest at apogee. A circular orbit is a special case where the magnitude of the velocity is constant throughout the orbit.

The Short Answer: Even when satellites are thousands of miles away, Earth’s gravity still tugs on them. Gravity–combined with the satellite’s momentum from its launch into space–cause the satellite go into orbit above Earth, instead of falling back down to the ground.

Do satellites stay in orbit forever? So the drag from the air slows the satellite down, the satellite loses energy and the size of the orbit gets smaller and smaller until it gets into a part of the air where friction builds up so much that the satellite just burns up.